Japanese calendar
Japanese calendar types have included a range of official and unofficial systems. At present, Japan uses the Gregorian calendar together with year designations stating the year of the reign of the current Emperor."Calendar" at Japan-guide.com; Bramsen, William. (1880). [https://books.google.com/books?id=mk8aAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA25&dq= Japanese chronological tables, p. 25]. The lunisolar Chinese calendar was introduced to Japan via Korea in the middle of the sixth century. After that, Japan calculated its calendar using various Chinese calendar procedures, and from 1685, using Japanese variations of the Chinese procedures. But in 1873, as part of Japan's Meiji period modernization, a calendar based on the solar Gregorian calendar was introduced.See the page on the history of the calendar at the National Diet Library site: http://www.ndl.go.jp/koyomi/e/. In Japan today, the old Chinese calendar is virtually ignored; celebrations of the Lunar New Year are thus limited to Chinese and other Asian immigrant communities. Japan has had more than one system for designating years.Clement, Ernest W. (1902). "Japanese Calendars", in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. 30-31, p. 3, In contrast to other East Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Korea and Mongolia, Japan has almost completely forgotten the Chinese calendar. Since 1876, January has been officially regarded as the "first month" even when setting the date of Japanese traditional folklore events (other months are the same: February as the second month, March as the third, and so on). But this system often brings a strong seasonal sense of gap since the event is 3 to 7 weeks earlier than in the traditional calendar. Modern Japanese culture has invented a kind of "compromised" way of setting dates for festivals called Tsuki-okure ("One-Month Delay") or Chūreki ("The Eclectic Calendar"). The festival is celebrated just one solar calendar month later than the date on the Gregorian calendar. For example, the Buddhist festival of Obon was the 15th day of the 7th month. Many places the religious services are held on July 15. However, in some areas, the rites are normally held on August 15, which is more seasonally close to the old calendar. (The general term "Obon holiday" always refers to the middle of August.) Although this is just de facto and customary, it is broadly used when setting the dates of many folklore events and religious festivals. But Japanese New Year is the great exception. The date of Japanese New Year is always January 1. See also * East Asian age reckoning * Jikkan Jūnishi * List of kigo References External links *Rokuyo – Lucky and Unlucky Days of the Japanese Calendar in Japanese * National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" *The Lunar Calendar in Japan *The Japanese Lunar Calendar Mechanics of the Japanese lunar calendar and hints on using NengoCalc (see below) *Koyomi no page in Japanese *Koyomi no hanashi in Japanese *Rokuyō calculator in Japanese *Rokuyō calendar in English *Convert Western Years to Japanese Years converts Gregorian calendar years to Japanese Emperor Era years (known as nengo) *Japanese Year Dates Detailed explanations of Reign years, Era years, Cyclic years, Western years, Imperial years *NengoCalc (Tool for converting Japanese dates into Western equivalents) *This Year in Japan Shows what the current year in Japan is *Convert a Western year into a Japanese year (sci.lang.Japan FAQ pages) Category:Calendars Category:The Humanoid Universe Category:Cartoonverse Category:Dramaverse Category:Comedyverse Category:Bloodverse Category:Apocalypticverse